


Three-Edged Sword

by firecat



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Babylon 5 (cameo), Family Drama, Gaslighting, Gen, Identity, Lies, Swords, Truth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25044382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecat/pseuds/firecat
Summary: TheBabylon Fiveepisode "Into The Fire" (Season 4, episode 6) includes this line:Sheridan: A Vorlon said, “Understanding is a three-edged sword”—your side, their side, and the truth.It's unclear where Thor picked up this saying, but he finds it useful.Loki is less impressed, for some reason.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13
Collections: Froday Flash Fiction Little & Monthly Specials 2020





	Three-Edged Sword

**Author's Note:**

> FFFC 100th Special Challenge  
> Table D: Fairytale/Fantasy/SciFi  
> Written for the prompt: 42. sword

“The humans have a saying,” insists Thor. “‘Understanding is a three-edged sword. Your side, their side, and the truth.’” 

Loki laughs, with a hint of bitterness and mockery. “Ah, _Brother._ Would that the world were so simple for us all. Merely three stories to reconcile. How sweet it must be, to know your whole life just where you stand.”

“What do you mean?” Thor hates it when Loki poses him riddles, tries to make him feel stupid. 

“Why did Odin not tell me the truth of who I am, from the beginning? Why did he disguise my form, even from me?”

Thor knows the answer to this, not from Odin himself, for he is locked in Odinsleep, but from his mother, Frigga. “He wanted to protect you from the truth,” Thor repeats. “He never wanted you to feel that you were other.”

Loki’s face looks so mild. But Thor has begun to learn that’s when his brother _(adopted brother, he must remember that now)_ can be at his most dangerous. 

“But ‘truth will out,’ Thor, as the Midgardian poet Shakespeare said. How is one protected then? To protect one from the truth is merely to render one defenseless against it. Now how many sides does the sword have?”

“Loki...” Thor protests. He’s not in the mood for abstract philosophical conundrums just now. The kingdom is in danger, and he is responsible for protecting it.

Loki persists. “To be told one ‘belongs,’ when daily, hourly, every miserable, confusing _second_ of one’s life, one is confronted by evidence to the contrary. Do you know what that means?”

“Loki, you twist his words, and make him seem a monster,” Thor objects. “He might not be the man who sired you, but he raised you as his son.”

Loki points a finger at Thor, as if it were a dagger, and continues, inexorably. His voice grows harsh. 

“Every time you perceive the truth — that you are other, that you see things differently, know things differently, are seen as different, are treated as such — then you hear the whispers of that voice inside you. That soft, _reasonable_ voice. The voice of your parent, who _loves_ you. And it says—” 

Here Loki’s voice breaks into a mocking mimicry of Odin’s, dark and powerful and seemingly patient, patriarchal to the core. 

“‘—Beloved, you are wrong. Your interpretation is false. Your knowledge is false. Your very experience is false. Put aside what you see, for it is a lie your mind is telling you. You cannot grow into your power if you think this. You cannot become who you are meant to be.’” 

Loki's pacing now, like a caged cat.

“And then you discover the truth. You were _other_ all along. And now? You’re _neither.”_

He turns back to Thor, and his eyebrows are knit in pain.

“Neither Jotun nor Asgardian. Neither a weakling baby exposed to die in a sea of battle blood, nor a prince fit to rule the greatest of peoples. The ones you’ve loved, even though they couldn’t love you back, because they couldn’t make sense of you. You were wrong somehow. Now, you are neither of those things, and what other life is available to you? _Now, you are nothing.”_

Loki turns his back on Thor. _“How many edges does the sword have now?”_ he spits.

All of a sudden there are multiple Lokis surrounding Thor. Each brandishing a three edged sword. Each swinging that sword. At each other. At Thor. At nothing. 

Thor spins round in confusion and fear. “Loki, stop this! Where are you? Which one of you is real?”

The Lokis disappear. 

Thor is alone.


End file.
